Figure Study after Andrea di Bonaiuto, S. Maria Novella, Florence
1835–38
Medium
Graphite
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 5/8 × 6 1/2 in. (27 × 16.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Joseph Simon and Linda Wolk-Simon, in memory of Roberta Black, 2019
Accession Number
2019.465
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the quiet intimacy of a graphite drawing, Hippolyte Flandrin captures elegance of a Renaissance figure from Florence's Santa Maria Novella. Created between 1835 and 1838, this *Figure Study after Andrea di Bonaiuto reflects Flandrin's time in Italy as a Prix de Rome winner, where he meticulously copied old masters to hone his neoclassical precision. Andrea di Bonaiuto, a 14th-century Florentine painter, adorned the church's Spanish Chapel with vivid frescoes depicting Dominican theology and virtues—likely the source for this poised male figure, rendered in Flandrin's delicate, linear style....